Commander of Fort Purgatory in Racine. Stocky (6' tall, 260 lbs) with piercing blue eyes and a shaved head.
Jonah Kurtz is a career military/police officer (they're pretty much the same thing under the Waltzer regime). He had a promising career in Milwaukee until several of his men were implicated in a bribery scandal. The men proven guilty went to prison; the rest of the unit, no longer trusted, were shipped off to the dead-end post at Fort Purgatory. He and his men have been at the fort for nearly seven years. Kurtz has been the ranking officer there since the death of the previous commander, Ben Willard, three years ago from dysentery.
Since taking command, Kurtz has tried to build up morale among the troops there. He encourages aggressive night patrols, often leading them in person, in hopes of making his men feel less helpless and more like soldiers. He has begun to copy the local barbarian custom of taking trophies from dead enemies, from possessions to body parts; enemy heads are sometimes mounted on sticks along the walls of the fort, ostensibly to intimidate the natives. He regularly resorts to torture to wring information out of prisoners. In hopes of getting the resources to better arm and provision his men, he has taken to selling captured locals as slaves, and some of his night raids are conducted with this purpose in mind. He currently has eight women on the fort and gives them as "rewards" to troops who show exceptional devotion to duty. Two of these are essentially prostitutes, who agreed to share their favors in exchange for protection and food; the others are captive locals, locked up in the old county jail and subjected to repeated rape by the soldiers. Slowly, by stages, Kurtz has become as much a savage as the natives he was sent here to contain. His harsh methods have worked to some extent; many of the troops have become fiercely loyal to Kurtz, some even imitating his shaved head (originally adopted as a hygiene measure - lice are common in the fort).
Unbeknownst to his superiors, his men, or even himself, Kurtz is teetering on the edge of a complete psychotic breakdown. The years of separation from his wife and children, the appalling living conditions, the stress of constant low-intensity warfare, the agony of watching his men die from pointless battles and preventable diseases, and the brutal actions circumstances have forced him to undertake have combined to push him to the brink. His dreams alternate between conducting a great purging massacre of the locals, or of uniting them into an army and leading them on Milwaukee to take revenge on the officers and government who condemned Kurtz and his men to this hopeless place. He is also toying with the idea of sending volunteers to Chicago in hopes of getting his hands on some of the chemical weapons rumored to reside there.
PCs are likely to meet Kurtz if they pass through the Racine area. He greets all travelers who shelter at the fort in person, and his men have standing orders to bring in any outsider passing through the area for a brief interview. It's also possible PCs might accept a job delivering supplies to the beleaguered fort. In person the captain seems stern, serious, and fanatical about his duty. He won't seem especially crazy unless they discover the things he's been up to, which he will take pains to prevent or excuse (for instance, visitors who hear screaming women will be told that they are prisoners being interrogated). Characters who get too suspicious, or are too outspoken in their disapproval of methods at the fort, run the risk of being imprisoned. Kurtz will not kill such prisoners outright, but may decide to treat them no differently from captured natives.
NAME: Captain Jonah Kurtz
Age: 33
Sex: Male
Race: White
Class: Middle
Profession: Police/Military
Disposition: Stern/serious
Faction(s): Waltzers (but see below)
DESCRIPTION & BACKGROUND
Commander of Fort Purgatory in Racine. Stocky (6' tall, 260 lbs) with piercing blue eyes and a shaved head.Jonah Kurtz is a career military/police officer (they're pretty much the same thing under the Waltzer regime). He had a promising career in Milwaukee until several of his men were implicated in a bribery scandal. The men proven guilty went to prison; the rest of the unit, no longer trusted, were shipped off to the dead-end post at Fort Purgatory. He and his men have been at the fort for nearly seven years. Kurtz has been the ranking officer there since the death of the previous commander, Ben Willard, three years ago from dysentery.
Since taking command, Kurtz has tried to build up morale among the troops there. He encourages aggressive night patrols, often leading them in person, in hopes of making his men feel less helpless and more like soldiers. He has begun to copy the local barbarian custom of taking trophies from dead enemies, from possessions to body parts; enemy heads are sometimes mounted on sticks along the walls of the fort, ostensibly to intimidate the natives. He regularly resorts to torture to wring information out of prisoners. In hopes of getting the resources to better arm and provision his men, he has taken to selling captured locals as slaves, and some of his night raids are conducted with this purpose in mind. He currently has eight women on the fort and gives them as "rewards" to troops who show exceptional devotion to duty. Two of these are essentially prostitutes, who agreed to share their favors in exchange for protection and food; the others are captive locals, locked up in the old county jail and subjected to repeated rape by the soldiers. Slowly, by stages, Kurtz has become as much a savage as the natives he was sent here to contain. His harsh methods have worked to some extent; many of the troops have become fiercely loyal to Kurtz, some even imitating his shaved head (originally adopted as a hygiene measure - lice are common in the fort).
Unbeknownst to his superiors, his men, or even himself, Kurtz is teetering on the edge of a complete psychotic breakdown. The years of separation from his wife and children, the appalling living conditions, the stress of constant low-intensity warfare, the agony of watching his men die from pointless battles and preventable diseases, and the brutal actions circumstances have forced him to undertake have combined to push him to the brink. His dreams alternate between conducting a great purging massacre of the locals, or of uniting them into an army and leading them on Milwaukee to take revenge on the officers and government who condemned Kurtz and his men to this hopeless place. He is also toying with the idea of sending volunteers to Chicago in hopes of getting his hands on some of the chemical weapons rumored to reside there.
PCs are likely to meet Kurtz if they pass through the Racine area. He greets all travelers who shelter at the fort in person, and his men have standing orders to bring in any outsider passing through the area for a brief interview. It's also possible PCs might accept a job delivering supplies to the beleaguered fort. In person the captain seems stern, serious, and fanatical about his duty. He won't seem especially crazy unless they discover the things he's been up to, which he will take pains to prevent or excuse (for instance, visitors who hear screaming women will be told that they are prisoners being interrogated). Characters who get too suspicious, or are too outspoken in their disapproval of methods at the fort, run the risk of being imprisoned. Kurtz will not kill such prisoners outright, but may decide to treat them no differently from captured natives.
HEALTH: 9
WEAPONS: Compound bow, .38 caliber Revolver with 3 remaining bullets, Military Knife
ARMOR: Reinforced Leather Jacket
POSSESSIONS/EQUIPMENT
ATTRIBUTES
Intelligence: 3
Wits: 3
Resolve: 2
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 3
Stamina: 3
Presence: 4
Manipulation: 2
Composure: 3
SKILLS
Mental
Academics : 0Computer : 0
Crafts : 0
Investigation : 2
Medicine : 2
Religion/Knowledge : 0
Politics : 0
Scavenging:0
Science: 2 (strategy/tactics)
Physical
Athletics : 2Brawl : 2
Drive : 0
Firearms : 3
Larceny : 0
Stealth : 0
Survival : 2
Weaponry: 3
Social
Animal ken : 0Empathy : 0
Expression : 0
Intimidation : 2
Persuasion : 3
Socialize : 0
Streetwise : 0
Subterfuge: 2
MERITS
Inspiring (4)Iron Stomach (2)
Natural Immunity (1)
and
FLAWS
Creeping Insanity(not in rulebook)